Related Lesson: Revolutionary War, Founding Americans
Grade level: High school
Unit: Johnny Tremain
Goals
Content Standards: ELAALRL3: The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.
The student relates a literary work to primary source documents of its literary period or historical setting; the student relates a literary work to the seminal ideas of the time in which it is set or the time of its composition.
ii. Colonial / Revolutionary/ National literature ELAALRC2: The student participates in discussions related to curricular learning in all subject areas. The student
Identifies messages and themes from books in all subject areas.
d. evaluates the merits of texts in every subject discipline. ELAALRC4: The student establishes a context for information acquired by reading across subject areas. The student explores life experiences related to subject area content.
ISTE NETS-S
X Creativity and innovation
X Critical thinking, problem solving, & decision making
X Communication and collaboration
Digital citizenship
X Research and information fluency
X Technology operations and concepts
Instructional Objective(s): Students will read primary documents of British and American spies during the Revolutionary War to garner information about the character, interpreting the thoughts and feelings of the characters in that situation. Each day, students will create one journal entry from a character represented by the primary documents.
Action
Before-Class Preparation: 1. To hook student interest, giving students insight into the acts of spies during the Revolutionary War, teacher creates a “hidden” message on a white piece of paper using invisible ink. This should be done in advance, to add to the mystery, thus engaging student curiosity. a. Use one of the following mixtures to make Invisible Ink:
lemon, grapefruit or orange juice
milk
sugar or salt water (teaspoon in a cup of water)
white vinegar
b. On heavy white writing paper, dip a clean pen (not a ball-point) or any instrument with a smooth point, like a toothpick, into the ink. As you write, the words will disappear, so hold your finger at the end of the last word to mark your place. 2. Present the daily assignment to students on the paper in invisible ink. Allow them to figure out how to read the message. (holding the paper over a bright electric light or other heated source will reveal the message).
During Class
Time 10 minutes
20 minutes
20 minutes
Instructional Activities Introduce the lesson: Spies, secret agents, and intelligence gatherers, are not usually studied in history classes. They affect the outcome of wars and military actions, however, just as much as the soldiers, governments and military leaders.
Students will read primary documents of a British general, Henry Clinton, as well as British and American spy letters. Each day, students will peruse the many documents, reading them and choosing one each day to depict in a journal entry.
Students will pretend to be one of the soldiers, or spies, writing a personal reflection as that person. Each journal entry should reflect an understanding of the role that person led, his thoughts or feelings, and the location (whether it be physical location, during a campaign, a skirmish, a battle, or other event). Each day, for a week, students will write a journal entry from one character’s perspective, which will be posted as a discussion to the class website. If you will post the journal to yourself, the first line of the discussion will state the character’s name. Follow this with your own real name in parenthesis: “Dear Paul Revere (Ms. Oren):”
On-going Assessment(s): Observe students to verify that they are actively involved in participating in the reading/journal writing activity. Verify on the wiki that students are composing one journal entry daily.
Accommodations and Extensions: Some students may struggle understanding these primary documents, so the teacher will need to monitor closely for those who require additional assistance. Students will produce their own journal entries, however, weak students will be seated next to students with stronger technology skills so as to provide peer assistance when needed.
Back-up Plan: If technology is unavailable, students will refer to printed documents from which to gain insight to Revolutionary spies, and record journal entries on paper.
Evaluation
Lesson Reflections and Notes: Student work will be evaluated on the wiki, based on ability to produce a coherent, reasonable entry based on the character information provided in the primary document.
ELAALRL3: The student deepens understanding of literary works by relating them to their contemporary context or historical background, as well as to works from other time periods.
- The student relates a literary work to primary source documents of its literary period or historical setting; the student relates a literary work to the seminal ideas of the time in which it is set or the time of its composition.
ii. Colonial / Revolutionary/ National literatureELAALRC2: The student participates in discussions related to curricular learning in all subject areas. The student
- Identifies messages and themes from books in all subject areas.
d. evaluates the merits of texts in every subject discipline.ELAALRC4: The student establishes a context for information acquired by reading across subject areas. The student explores life experiences related to subject area content.
1. To hook student interest, giving students insight into the acts of spies during the Revolutionary War, teacher creates a “hidden” message on a white piece of paper using invisible ink. This should be done in advance, to add to the mystery, thus engaging student curiosity.
a. Use one of the following mixtures to make Invisible Ink:
- lemon, grapefruit or orange juice
- milk
- sugar or salt water (teaspoon in a cup of water)
- white vinegar
b. On heavy white writing paper, dip a clean pen (not a ball-point) or any instrument with a smooth point, like a toothpick, into the ink. As you write, the words will disappear, so hold your finger at the end of the last word to mark your place.2. Present the daily assignment to students on the paper in invisible ink. Allow them to figure out how to read the message. (holding the paper over a bright electric light or other heated source will reveal the message).
10 minutes
20 minutes
20 minutes
Introduce the lesson: Spies, secret agents, and intelligence gatherers, are not usually studied in history classes. They affect the outcome of wars and military actions, however, just as much as the soldiers, governments and military leaders.
Students will read primary documents of a British general, Henry Clinton, as well as British and American spy letters. Each day, students will peruse the many documents, reading them and choosing one each day to depict in a journal entry.
Students will pretend to be one of the soldiers, or spies, writing a personal reflection as that person. Each journal entry should reflect an understanding of the role that person led, his thoughts or feelings, and the location (whether it be physical location, during a campaign, a skirmish, a battle, or other event). Each day, for a week, students will write a journal entry from one character’s perspective, which will be posted as a discussion to the class website. If you will post the journal to yourself, the first line of the discussion will state the character’s name. Follow this with your own real name in parenthesis: “Dear Paul Revere (Ms. Oren):”
One computer per student with computer access.
Web address:
http://www2.si.umich.edu/spies/index-gallery.html
Post to the class wiki:
http://oren-educ7106-1.wikispaces.com/Student+Discussion